They were granted bail on Thursday afternoon in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court by Magistrate Estelle de Lange, following a formal hearing that was opposed by the state. 

These two, Seipati Dlamini and Limakatso Moorosi, are accused of fraud, corruption and money laundering after they allegedly aided the Gupta associate to syphon off R24 million from a feasibility study in 2011.  

The duo was arrested alongside former Head of the Department (HOD) Peter Thabethe and Iqbal Meer Sharma, the Gupta associate, following the alleged theft from the provincial government's flagship project which included the failed Estina Dairy Project under "Mohuma Mobung". 

Magistrate De Lange ordered the two to hand over their passports to the investigating officer (IO) on Friday morning.

The prosecutor, Peter Serunye, opposed bail and said it was not in the interest of justice to release them because of the likelihood that they could re-offend again.

Serunye presented the IO's affidavit as a form of evidence to oppose bail against the two. The IO said there was a likelihood that the two could undermine and seek to influence the outcomes of the investigations against them.

But De Lange said the IO failed to motivate his reasoning for opposing the release of the duo on bail.

The matter was then postponed to Monday 7 June for Sharma and Thabethe to apply for a formal bail hearing.

Thabethe and Dlamini are also co-accused in the Rekgonne fraud and corruption case, which is set for a High Court trial in late 2021.

It is another Estina adjacent case. During the investigations of the Estina case, it was discovered that there were also irregularities in the financial flow analysis of a certain account. It's alleged that large amounts of money were allegedly deposited into a bank account belonging to Dlamini. 

OFM News previously reported that seven suspects, including Dlamini and Thabethe, were arrested by the Hawks in July and August in 2020 respectively for corruption, fraud, and money laundering of over R244 million.

OFM News